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Annie Finch:  That's an interesting connection, since Eliot was certainly a strong early influence on me.  When I wrote "The Last Mermother," the mermaid had already been a resonant symbol for me for quite some time, and I had written a verse play called "The Mermaid Tragedy"  (which, incidentally, may soon be performed for the first time as a puppet theater performance).  When I wrote "The Last Mermother," I recall that I was fascinated by a wooden sculpture of a mermaid with a skull for a face that I had seen in Mexico.   I felt compelled to explore the more threatening side of the mermaid imagery, which I associated with a dangerously powerful powerlessness. After it was done, I realized that I had written a poem about the relation between mothers and daughters, and the way mothers who have had to repress their own ambitions can haunt their children perpetually. 

"The Last Mermother" was also a breakthrough because it was one of my first narrative poems, and it set the stage for my long narrative "Marie Moving," which I began soon afterwards.

R. S. Gwynn:  Among the new poems you have in this issue are three sonnets you've translated from the work of Louise Labé  (1520-1566). What drew you to her work?  Have you done other translations of formal poems, and did you encounter any special challenges here?

Annie Finch:  Well, I was drawn to Labé several times over. At first, I was drawn to her charm and passion and humor. Labé is a legendary figure in French poetry, as famous for her skill in jousting as for her love affairs, and a brilliant and beloved poet. I translated her complete poetry, which consists of three very witty satirical "elegies" on love in couplets, and 25 sonnets. The sonnets are passionate and include love laments, take-offs on Petrarchan conceits, seduction poems, and an amusing sonnet on impotence. My new book of poems, Calendars, is more grounded in the body than Eve, and I attribute that in part to my having done the Labé translations.

Also, when I started the Labé project, I had been so aware of meter and trying out different meters for such a long time that I had almost forgotten about rhyme, and I was ready for a challenge in that direction, which Labé offered:  previous translators did not translate her sonnets according to their original rhyme schemes.  Though they are all Italian sonnets, they have been translated only into English sonnets and into free verse.

I determined to translate each sonnet according to the rhyme pattern that Labé herself had developed for it.  She used quite a variety of rhyme schemes; one of her sonnets rhymes 8 words on a single sound.  There were several times as I was working on these poems when I thought I would have to give up, but there always turned out to be a way through the maze. And I feel that through her rhyme schemes, I was able to capture something about the way her mind works that was unavailable in the other translations.  The Labé translations will be published by the University of Chicago Press in the next few years.

 I have done a variety of other translations of formal poetry, including some in Greek meters and a version of the old English "Seafarer" in alliterative meter.  Each form presents its own delicious challenges.  Now I am working with a Russian translator on a poem of Akhmatova's in amphibrachic meter.  I used amphibrachs in my poem "Carol for Carolyn, " in Calendars,  and that got me interested in translating Akhmatova's poem. 

At the West Chester conference this summer, Tom Cable and I and other poets and prosodists held a seminar about noniambic meters.  Amphibrachs, which are central to Russian poetry but are here usually considered hardly to exist, were central to that fascinating discussion.  It's a beautiful and unique meter, and worth learning how to hear.  On paper, it looks as if it could be scanned as anapests, but the rhythm is completely different once you learn to hear it. 

R. S. Gwynn:  You've answered part of my final question, about your next book.  You mentioned a narrative with an intriguing title, "Marie Moving."  What's it about?  And when can we expect to see both the poem and Calendars?